Mark Cuban offers sneak peek at "The Benefactor"

Mavericks Owner Offers Peek at Reality Show

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's www.Blogmaverick.com Web site gives the first sneak peek at ABC's "The Benefactor," the reality show in which one lucky contestant will win $1 million from Cuban.

The site includes a one-minute, 34-second video providing a glimpse of the show that ABC has scheduled to run for at least eight episodes this fall before "Monday Night Football."

In a written message on the Web site, Cuban says there is nothing more fun than handing someone a check for $1 million "and watching that person fall over on the floor and not be able to stand up."

"On the flipside, I haven't had many jobs tougher than eliminating people who are closer than they will ever be to that much money," Cuban wrote.

Sixteen competitors, picked in April from hundreds of people who auditioned in five cities, were involved in cutthroat games as they shared living space in a $5 million mansion in Dallas.

"These people are like barracudas," a male contestant says.

A female competitor adds: "I don't get along with the women, period. I think they're catty. I think a lot of this has been proven in this house."

At the end of the promo, Cuban takes a soft jab at Donald Trump's "The Apprentice," telling a trio of puzzled grade-schoolers: "I'm going to come back next week and choose one of you to run one of my companies. OK?"

Welcome to the site, Mark. As you can probably guess, you'll find comments here that run the spectrum, especially while the show's going on. It'll be interesting if you're willing and able to share your views on what we see and how we react to it. I hope you stick around, it'll add an interesting perspective.

To pass the time, I'd be interested in hearing about your selection criteria for candidates. What you were looking for, etc. Since the prize seems to be based not so much on competition, but on who you decide gets it, the selection would seem to be the most important part of the process.

I'm not a big fan of this concept because if the winner basically comes down to Cuban's choice and not on the competition then really what's the point? Hypothetically he could pick a favorite in the very beginning who goes on to lose all the competitions but still end up winning the cash. Of course I am probably way off because I'm just going by what I saw in the commercial.

I don't understand the nature of the competition. We hear discussion about competition, but we don't know if the pick-up basketball games, break dancing, and wannabe rock star concerts are parts of the competition itself. But it sure looks like they had a blast doing... whatever it is they were doing to get the million. (Edit: except for the ugly version of Trish from the Bachelor) Jury's still out.